Can you grant annual leave after mat leave and take it back?

[Ladyoftheapple]

I work for the NHS, currently on mat leave due to return at the beginning of December. On my maternity contract it asked how many weeks annual leave I'd like to take on my return and I put 4. This was sent to the maternity lead, signed and then in writing it says my leave was agreed by line manager. However, I have now been put down for shifts. When querying it, I was told I can't have it off due to staffing and no one is having annual leave over Christmas. Is this allowed?

I would imagine, in the NHS, service need comes before annual leave requests.

I think so as long as you can take the annual leave another time.

No annual leave over the 2 Christmas and new year weeks has been standard everywhere I have worked.

NHS frontline never get those two weeks off except with special sign off/exceptional circumstances. You can request leave but it Durrant mean they have to agree it.

Yes if they give you enough notice

No but they won't let me take any of December off!
I had this with my last child as they were also a December baby but then the following year they let another lady pop their annual leave onto the end of mat leave and she stayed off until the end of January. Seems very unfair to me.

Is the other lady in the same dept, doing the same job, at the same level as you? If so I can see why you would think that unfair, if not then it's not a comparable situation.

It is the sour point of the NHS but depends on where you work. Where I am we are mainly outpatient based, no ward work, 1/12 rota to cover on-calls. As we are consultants we discuss amongst ourselves and take it in turns when we want to be off over Christmas/New Year.

Common in the NHS.

They want you back to cover Christmas end of. Up to you if you take it you've got lots of time to find a new job

Presumably the other lady was technically still on ML in December, so she could not be forced to work. With AL I think they can cancel any booked leave with notice twice the length of the leave proposed. The question to ask is when you can use it instead.

They need to give you enough notice. So if you’ve taken four weeks off they need to give you eight weeks notice of cancellation. Did they do this?

Mat leave and annual leave are totally different. Once mat leave finishes, you can use annual leave, but the normal rules of annual leave apply. If this year there is having to be a rule that no-one takes annual leave in December because of business need, then when your mat leave ends in December you can't take annual leave immediately. It's tough, but it would be equally unfair to say no annual leave in December, but then allow you to take annual leave.

I personally think it’s very unfair to not allow you to have annual leave at the end of your maternity leave, just because it falls over Christmas. Where I work absolutely every nurse adds a lot of their annual leave to the end of their mat leave, and you shouldn’t be unable to do this just because your baby is born in December! My matron put me down for A/L in December after mat leave, no issues, and I will return in January. If you have a membership, can you contact the RCN for their advice?

This

They can dictate when you take your leave so yes they can do this. Will you have used all your maternity leave? If not then extend that if you want more time off.

If the AL was already granted I’d absolutely think it’s worth fighting this out with the help of your union.

Do you have it clearly in writing that those 4 weeks with dates have been granted by the maternity lead.

They could argue service need but if this is pre granted leave you are in a good position. As others have said, have they given you the 8 weeks notice.

contact your union asap

NHS employee here- I'm going to try the relevant guidance but I think this is wrong, I think you actually HAVE to use all your accrued leave before returning to work

I dont think you do...when I had my eldest, I used my accured annual leave from mat leave to only work 3 days a week instead of 5 when I first went back so I returned to work before using it all.

Ok so best practice is to take it all in one chunk following your maternity leave.
If there is a deviation from this due to service needs then it needs to be agreed in writing and with an agreement of when this leave will then be taken.

So as PP pointed out- have they informed you in writing? If you put 4 weeks on the original form and have a copy you can say you already have a written agreement of when you are taking your leave.

I would gently challenge saying you have it in writing that you would have 4 weeks leave following maternity and haven't been given any written notice of a deviation from this. Do you have a union?

See we have been told we aren't allowed to do this as we are then accruing and using leave at the same time. Maybe depends on trust policy!

They gave me no notice. They just automatically put me down for shifts in December. Hadn't even spoken to me at all to discuss if I was actually still returning.

My maternity forms - 4 weeks annual leave on return is in writing from the maternity officer that my line manager agreed it. I tried phoning in the week to query the shifts and but no answer so emailed. The email reply was that they can't grant it.

I get the impression my manager just signed the forms without even realising that the 4 weeks leave was on there

Yes , they don't have to grant your annual leave. However you will have a years worth of annual leave to take before the end of March 2025, does your trust allow you to carry over? If not I would be asking your line manager how they propose you use all of your leave up before then.